5 early Spring Training standouts for the St. Louis Cardinals

These five players are strutting their stuff and giving off good impressions so far in Spring Training.

Expectations are high for the St. Louis Cardinals, especially on the offensive side, and the team has been delivering the goods at the plate so far. Seven games into Spring Training, the Cardinals possess a 5-2 record and are third among teams in batting average, at .298.

The Cardinals will have a chance to see what they have in many of their reserves, as Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Tommy Edman, Lars Nootbaar, and Tyler O’Neill are among the expected everyday players who are departing for the World Baseball Classic.

On the pitching side, the outlook is slightly more unsettling. One of the pitchers who will play in the World Baseball Classic is Adam Wainwright, whose velocity has been noticeably down to being in Spring Training, and opposing hitters have mashed the ball against him in his two starts. He needs to find his groove in the World Baseball Classic because when he returns, the Cardinals’ pitching brass won’t have much time left to get him ready for the season.

Other than Wainwright, the pitchers on the team’s 40-man roster who are departing for the World Baseball Classic are Miles Mikolas, Andre Pallante, Giovanny Gallegos, Genesis Cabrera, JoJo Romero, and Guillermo Zuniga. 

The players excelling this spring are overwhelmingly on the offensive side, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to fans who have paid attention to the Cardinals’ outlook this year. It’s also too early to judge most pitchers given the small number of innings they’ve thrown to this point, which is another reason this list of players who are opening eyes this spring consists solely of hitters.